[lit-ideas] Re: The Answering Machine
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:56:15 -0500 (EST)
Dummett
_http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/04/remembering-michael-dummett
/_
(http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/04/remembering-michael-dummett/)
"once explained that he made a telephone call only to be
put through to the answering machine. He observed: “They
call it an answering machine but it’s not. You can ask it questions, but
it
won’t give you any answers.”".
We are considering Michael Dummett's analysis of 'answering machine'. In a
message dated 1/10/2012 7:30:14 P.M. UTC-02, donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx
writes:
"If the alleged "fallacy" is contained in the idea that we 'answer the
phone', how is this a fallacy - especially if we do answer it?"
The point would be that, strictly, you don't _answer_ it. As the links
below suggest, the 'original sense' of 'answer' was "to make a sworn statement,
rebutting a charge"
--- begin EXCERPT from Etymology online:
answer (v.)
O.E. answarian "to answer;" see answer (n.). Meaning "to respond in
antiphony" is from early 15c.; that of "to be responsible for" is early 13c.
Related: Answered; answering. The telephone answering machine is from 1961.
answer (n.)
O.E. andswaru "an answer, a reply," from and- "against" (see ante) +
-swaru "affirmation," from swerian "to swear" (see swear), suggesting an
original sense of "make a sworn statement rebutting a charge." A common
Germanic
compound (cf. O.S. antswor, O.N. andsvar, O.Fris. ondser, Dan., Swed.
ansvar), implying a P.Gmc. *andswara-. Meaning "a reply to a question," the
main
modern sense, was in O.E. Meaning "solution of a problem" is from c.1300.
answerable
"liable to be held responsible," 1540s, from answer + -able. Less-common
meaning "able to be answered" is from 1690s.
----end of excerpt.
Next, McEvoy considers the possibility of taking the ring as a question,
"is anybody home?", and comments: "If that is the question, then the
activation of the answer-machine may be an answer of sorts, and so the
answer-machine answers."
This would 'hold water' if people BELIEVED in 'natural meaning', as it
were. "Black clouds mean rain". Black clouds don't lie. But surely someone may
be home, and YET not answer the phone (or the ring). I'm not sure it was
this type of 'answer' that Dummett was having in mind when he said that the
mis-called answering machine does not give them.
Finally, McEvoy expands, for the record, on the indirectness of 'ring'. The
ring may count as a question, "is anybody home?". The intentional action
here is indeed, as McEvoy notes, to "MAKE ring":
"Machines may 'ring' but persons may also perform an action that is called
'ringing': 'I rang the alarm', 'I rang my brother on his mobile' etc. It is
in this sense second sense that we respond to the person ringing by
answering the phone. Obviously. If they were 'ringing' in the first sense we
might respond by calling a doctor."
Note, however, that no analogical intentional action applies to the
answering machine, so Dummett's point stands: only by 'extension' is an
'answering machine' called so. Cheers,
Speranza
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